Babylon
This audacious, adrenalized epic of fame and decadence from Damien Chazelle (La La Land) follows the meteoric rise and crushing fall of two young talents in the silent film industry.
In the cinematic tradition of Goodfellas and Boogie Nights, Damien Chazelle's Babylon charts the rise and fall of a glorified yet ignominious subculture with visual aplomb and raucous depravity. Chazelle's three-hour epic follows two up-and-comers in the mid-1920s' silent film industry—Margot Robbie's drug-fueled hot mess with talent, Nellie LaRoy, and Diego Calva's Johnny-on-the-spot man of many talents, Manny Torres—and one aging star whose light has begun to fade, Jack Conrad, played with farcical elegance by Brad Pitt. A fourth, less threaded, strand follows Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo), a Black trumpeter who goes from leading bands at Hollywood shindigs to commanding the big screen in the emerging era of sound cinema. Roving, balletic camera movements and sets the size of small battlefields impart a sense of scale and decadence to the filmmaking rarely seen in non-franchise movies these days. But the grandeur isn't only gilded; it's debauched to the nines; and Chazelle relishes as much in the excess and excrement as he does in the glitz and glamor. He gives the audience both the party and the hangover.
With opening remarks from Prof. Desirée Garcia.
D: Damien Chazelle, US, 2022, 3h9m
Nominated for three Academy awards, including Best Original Score, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design
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